Saracens' ambitious globe-trotting plans have been dealt a fresh blow with the news that their hopes of playing Munster in New York later this year have been dashed.

The Aviva Premiership club planned to switch their Heineken Cup clash on December 16 to the MetLife Stadium - an 82,500-capacity stadium which is the home to American football sides the New York Giants and New York Jets.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Munster were positive about the prospect of playing the high-profile European clash on American soil. But the attempt to switch the venue fell down because of technical issues at the MetLife Stadium.

Saracens chief executive Ed Griffiths told the newspaper: "We are in a unique position this season because our new stadium, Allianz Park, is not ready and we saw this an opportunity to take some top-class rugby matches where we could create big events that people want to watch.

"I went to New York in July and looked at the MetLife Stadium. We looked at the size of the pitch and it came down in the end to the fact that we would need to put rugby posts into the artificial turf.

"The owners of the two NFL teams didn't want the poles going into the turf, they wanted them going in behind the line so it wouldn't affect the line where their score a touchdown.

"It was disappointing because we wanted to put it on a grand stage and the MetLife Stadium is a fantastic venue at Meadowlands. My feeling was if we had been able to play there we would have had a great occasion.

"The indication from Munster, too, was that they would be eager to receive a proposal. I think they had worked out for an Irish team to go to New York made quite a lot of sense."